by Chuck McKay | Jun 14, 2013 | Image Advertising, Branding, and Positioning, Presentation, Publicity and Public Relations (PR)
Originally published August 14, 2005 Half a century ago a pair of researchers, Herbert Harari and John W. McDavid gave eighty experienced teachers papers to grade. Eight essays, all of comparable quality were supposedly by boys named David, Elmer, Hubert, and Michael,...
by Chuck McKay | Apr 18, 2013 | Credibility and Critical Non-Essentials, Customer Focus, Retention, and Evangelism, Trophy Catch
Originally Published July 12, 2006 The scene is a national restaurant chain. I’m meeting a client for lunch. I notice that our hostess, who doesn’t appear to be much more than 19 or 20 is wearing a pin on her apron with the number “10” on it. I must have looked a bit...
by Chuck McKay | Sep 9, 2012 | Advertising / Marketing Strategy, Publicity and Public Relations (PR)
Scott is a musician. Scott’s band isn’t getting enough paying gigs. He thinks he has a marketing problem, but he’s wrong. He has a focus problem. Scott came to me to help him sell his band’s services to club owners. I pointed out that 40 years ago bands got $700 a...
by Chuck McKay | Jun 25, 2012 | Persuasion / Power of Words, Presentation, Psychology and Consumer Behavior, Trophy Catch
Your company is looking at a lot of late night local cable availability, and thinking that a 30-minute infomercial might be appropriate. The boss has just found out that companies which specialize in infomercial marketing will charge tens of thousands of dollars to...
by Chuck | Jun 21, 2012 | Guidebook, Presentation
You are stressed about your upcoming presentation. You have spent countless number of hours looking for the right image for this slide but it is just not happening. It is now midnight and you are sitting in bed with your laptop. Undecided. Unsure. You shake your wife...
by Chuck McKay | Jun 1, 2012 | Customer Focus, Retention, and Evangelism, Customer Service, Trophy Catch
Dear Doctor: For a single, brief instant I was your patient. I was new in the community and needed to have my diabetic prescriptions renewed. I didn’t mind that I had to wait five weeks for the first appointment. I like that your practice is that busy. It...
by Chuck McKay | May 16, 2012 | Advertising / Marketing Strategy, Market Segmentation, Targeted Marketing, Database Marketing, Trophy Catch
I don’t play often, but I appreciate a good game of poker. Poker makes a pretty good analogy for marketing, and for business. Poker players know what they hold in their hands, they carefully watch what everyone else appears to be doing. They make educated guesses as...
by Chuck | May 14, 2012 | Advertising / Marketing Strategy, Buying Stages / Sales Conversion, Customer Education, Expectations, and Motivation, Fresh Catch, Systemic Marketing (TM)
There tend to be two schools of marketing. The creative and the scientific. Imagination and mathematics. Right brain, left brain. At least, it looks that way on the surface. Marketing Yin & Yang Some highly effective marketing uses evocative imagery. “Melts in...
by Chuck | May 9, 2012 | Advertising / Marketing Strategy, Fresh Catch, Media, Social Media, and Word-of-Mouth (WOM), Systemic Marketing (TM)
A young man shows up at your door. For only ten dollars he’ll paint your house number in florescent paint on the curb in front of your house. Feeling no need for glow in the dark numbers on your curb, you pass on the offer. The next day a different young man...
by Chuck McKay | May 9, 2012 | Fishing 101 - the "How To" Class
Originally Published December 7, 2005 Marketing consultant George S. Cullinan (1911-1963) was inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame in 1989 for being “the first to recognize the significance of databases as a foundation for successful direct...
